Spring Skies

We're having yet another lake drawdown of 2.5 feet this spring to repair the floodgates and upper flashboards of our dam, so I seized the opportunity to get out in my kayak today (and before it started raining again). It was a perfect spring sky, threatening rain and sun on and off all day, but providing the most incredible light and cloud show!

I was also rewarded with sightings of basking painted turtles, frantic red-winged blackbirds, gloriously pink rhodoras

grey tree frogs trilling, a beaver tail slap, 

and the most enormous snapping turtle beneath my kayak. I had to remind myself to remember this when I swim and walk barefoot through the shallows this summer.

What a glorious day I had!

Lawns and Chemicals

I saw this image on a Facebook page about gardening tips, and was heartsore for days. Not being able to get it out of my mind, I decided to share the image and message - lawn chemicals sprayed in the yard coat bugs that are food for birds and their young. Reconsider using chemicals to rid your lawn of messy "weeds" - you're inadvertently reducing bird populations, which keep bugs down. Is that perfect lawn worth the price?

Gardening Tips

Let's try to be more humane gardeners in future.

Moths Grow on Trees

Moths, butterflies and other insects rely on leafy plant material to complete their life cycles. Their larval stages, such as this woolly bear type of caterpillar of the giant leopard moth, need trees - please don't cut them down without a good reason.

This bristly little cherub was glistening with raindrops, showing off its little prolegs (little stumps in the central part of its body),

but it was only when I looked at the other side that the coloration helped determine the species. The reddish bands only show when its body is extended.

Believe it or not, those scary looking bristles aren't poisonous and don't cause irritation - I'm not willing to test this though.

Verdant Spring

Leafy green curtains

Rise from the understory,

Before canopy